BENIN – Workers under the aegis of the Coalition of Unions of Edo State-Owned Tertiary Institutions on Wednesday in Benin protested over the non-payment of outstanding five months salaries and poor condition of service.
The workers, in their hundreds, drawn from the College of Education, Ekiadolor, College of Education, Igueben, the Institute of Science and Technology, Usen, and College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, all wore black attires during the protest.
They also demanded for the immediate payment of sixteen months salary arrears, said to have been approved between July 2009 and October 2010.
They condemned the non-payment of promotion arrears, stoppage of the use of trust fund/cooperative funds for the running of the institutions, dilapidated infrastructure and non-provision of funds for accreditation of courses.
The President of the coalition, Mr Fred Omonuwa, noted that they had met with the government through the Commissioner for Education over the issues raised but it attracted no positive response.
Omonuwa said the workers could no longer continue to bear the pain.
He, however, frowned at the decision of the government to resort to selective treatment of workers.
Omonuwa noted that the government had chosen to pay their counterparts in a sister institution, the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, regular monthly pension and gratuities and increased their subvention, while they were ignored.
The protest saw the workers matching through major streets in Benin and ending up at the Government House.
Mr Igbaeremen Obazele, the state’s Head of Service, who received the protesters on behalf of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, said government had since constituted a panel to look into the issues raised.
Obazele attributed the delay in the panel’s work to failure by the management of three out of the four institutions to make available the required statistics.
“You don’t hold meetings without computation. You cannot negotiate without adequate records.
“The summary of these issues is money. The summary of your demand is increase in subvention and the government cannot increase the subvention without knowing what is on the ground,” he added. (NAN)
